random thoughts – Day 2,296 (Sunday) – years ago on june 28

Oceanside Pier,
Oceanside, California, 6-28-2012.

On this date in 2012 (June 28) I had recently arrived in California from Tennessee and hanging out with two of my cousins who had fled New England for better weather and a different lifestyle.  I had fled New England for Tennessee after one too many harsh winters, then fled Tennessee temporarily for a vacation with a change of scenery. 

During my Cali vacation, I stayed at the home of one cousin for half the week, then went to the other cousin’s home for the rest of the week. It was fun, even though the weather was the midst of the “June gloom” with cloud cover, chilly temperatures, and fog.

On June 28^th, a cousin and I had been to a very fancy and beautiful gym in Carlsbad that put to shame any I had ever belonged to. Later that day, we went to Oceanside Pier. During the course of the week, both cousins and their menfolk and I went to a concert at the San Diego County Fair, visited breweries, and rode a train from Carlsbad to San Diego to eat dinner. 

During the week, I also enjoyed a yoga class taught by one of my Cali cousins, and many other fun things that were not in my usual Tennessee lifestyle. My cousins were great hosts and made it a great vacation for me with a blend of touristy things and cool places where the locals eat and socialize.

Long Sands Beach,
York, Maine, 6-28-2013.

Seeing the photo of Oceanside Pier in Facebook memories today sent me back to that fun vacation week along the Pacific Ocean. The same memories feature for today included a photo from a vacation exactly one year later in York Beach, Maine. that is the year when Mom, my sister, and I rented a house one block from the beach for a week. 

In York Beach, we rode trolleys, went to the beach, walked my dogs, and ate seafood and ice cream. York Beach was so welcoming, the colorful seaweed even coordinated with my sneakers during a morning walk with the dogs. Unlike the humans and all the other dogs on the beach in the early mornings, my dogs were not fans of the beach.

Beach towns are fun. For various reasons, in recent years I have failed to get myself to a nearby beach. This needs to be corrected this summer.